Just 3 of 18 candidates for president attend debate

KABUL, Afghanistan -- It was not exactly riveting: three candidates and the representatives of 12 others sat at a horseshoe-shaped table yesterday droning out near-identical speeches outlining plans to fight corruption, exploit the nation's untapped copper and gold resources, and improve pay for civil servants.

At Afghanistan's first and only presidential debate, front-runner and interim President Hamid Karzai did not even attend. His chief rival, Education Minister Younis Qanooni, opted to campaign elsewhere -- while working behind the scenes to get the other candidates to unite behind him before Saturday's vote.

Wonk-like, earnest and formal, the debate -- which was to be broadcast later on state television and radio -- felt somehow appropriate to a country that is new to the concept and trappings of electoral politicking but is trying to adapt.

One or two sparks did fly. Wakil Mangul said that if elected he would demand to know from Karzai how $4.8 billion in aid has been spent in the past two years, adding that he could not see any results. Most of the money must have gone to the pockets of warlords now living in palatial houses and driving fancy cars, he said.

Absul Sattar Sirat said he and the other 16 candidates running against Karzai were still discussing among themselves whether most would drop out of the race and back one challenger, presumably Qanooni.

Sirat, a white-bearded scholar of Islamic literature, complained that the incumbent has had all the benefits of the state media, government transport for international and domestic trips, and the backing of foreign organizations.

"Most candidates have had only one month to campaign, whereas there are 30 provinces. It is not enough," Sirat said. "Mr. Karzai has been campaigning for the last three years, and he has all the government resources at his disposal."

"The main thing is that we should develop the economy of the country," said vice presidential candidate Nelab Mobarez. "We have to start with the fundamentals -- otherwise we cannot achieve anything."

What did shine through was a sense of anticipation among Afghans about what is about to occur -- the next step toward what many hope will be the emergence of a normal, stable country instead of a wild land sapped by more than two decades of invasion, civil war, and political violence.

Saturday's election will be -- depending on the observer's perspective -- either a historic turn toward democracy or a contrived show ripe for terrorist violence, widespread intimidation, and voting fraud, with the cards stacked in favor of Karzai.

The 46-year-old incumbent, an Indian-educated ethnic Pashtun, has become the darling of the Bush administration and the international community, even though his power has been limited to the area around Kabul because of the lingering grip of warlords on the hinterlands.

He has always been seen as the favorite based on his record as acting and interim president since December 2001, a period in which most of the country has been at relative peace and the first steps toward redevelopment and reconstruction have begun.

Qanooni, his main challenger, is a 47-year-old Tajik from the north who has sought to assume the mantle of slain resistance hero Ahmed Shah Massood, assassinated just before the Sept. 11 attacks by Taliban agents.

Qanooni is also supported by Defense Minister Mohammed Fahim, the powerful warlord who succeeded Massood at the head of the Northern Alliance and helped lead the campaign that drove the Taliban out of Kabul in 2001.

Although violent attempts to disrupt the elections are expected, the desire of most Afghans to vote will not be deterred, US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad predicted at an upbeat news conference yesterday.

"The efforts to thwart the election have already failed," said the Afghan-born envoy.

Shifting easily between English and Dari, he spoke in a makeshift embassy cafe across the street from where a new US Embassy complex is rising behind a high fortress of concertina wire and truck-bomb barriers.

"The Afghan people clearly believe in these elections," he said. "They know what they are doing. For the first time in their history, men and women, in secret ballots, will choose their leader."